AUG 19 & 20: 11TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The gospel today – Mathew 18: 23-35, is the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. It talks about Jesus explaining how we are to treat our offending brethren—Jesus explains why we should forgive. Therefore, Jesus is teaching His disciples, and us by extension, that forgiveness should be in like proportion to the amount forgiven. The first servant had been forgiven all by the King, and he then should have forgiven all, but instead when a fellow servant owed him, he did not forgive. Jesus brings home the point of the parable – “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

God has forgiven us, and so we are to forgive others, Jesus says, “from your heart.” That is, not just outwardly, pretending or smoothing things over, but truly releasing their debt to us. And if we don’t do this, God will treat us like the king treated the servant he had previously forgiven, which is a clear warning to us.